What do you think of the new UUA ad campaign?

IUUSA Fellowship Event

Friday, October 19th at 6:00 is the confirmed date for our IUUSA fellowship event at First Universalist in Denver. I would imagine it will run for a couple of hours. If you can't stay that long, please attend for as long as you can.

The event will convene with a worship service followed by fellowship (with food being provided by First Universalist) and an opportunity for everyone to meet with potential mentors. We will also discuss some planning for future events. If you would like to contribute items to the agenda, please email me and I will include them on the docket.

At each meeting in the following months it would be interesting to have students and or clergy offer mini-workshops on various topics concerning the ordination process, church dynamics, worship, etc. I'm imagining 20 or 30 minutes at most. We can have more discussion on this at the event. I will offer a brief workshop this coming Friday on what contemporary worship can mean for Unitarian Universalists to get the ball rolling.

Students, please let me know if you are interested in planning the service. I have at least one volunteer and would love to have a couple more.

Many thanks to Aaron and Kirk at First Universalist for their wonderful hospitality.

If anyone would like to reply to this post, please add to the conversation.

Warm Regards

Joe Stone

Not because I want to start turf wars or evoke bad feelings, nor because I have anything against the IUUSA blog, but because I (like many UU's, many USians and many of my generations) have a deep seeded need to have my OWN thing, and also because I am afraid that maybe I don't toe the UU party line . . . .I wanted to make folks aware of my own little UU blog, located just a hop jump and skip away, also on blogspot.

Fair warning that my particular personal issues insofar as UUism goes have been tending towards
1) a fair amount of confusion about what the hell I'm doing in seminary when I used to be a kid-forever wannabepunk
2) some frustration about what it means to be a UU lifer in a religion of very few other lifers
3) some misdirected anger about the reality that I am aging
and
4) the intersections of those

I caution you all that sometimes I let my thoughts get away from me and really I'm just trying to figure things out and really I'm so f'ing happy that y'all exist at Iliff because yer smart and funny and also UU's.

Anyway if, after all those caveats, you still wanna stop by, you should.

http://uurampage.blogspot.com

Heart,
Andie

Holiday Party at Joan VB's House

Host:	Joan Van Becelaere
Location:	Joan's House 460 22nd Street, Denver, CO View Map
When:	Friday, December 22, 7:00pm
Phone:	303-641-5896
Come join Iliff students, alums and area UU clergy for wine, cheese, assorted finger foods, conversation and holiday cheer. Spouses/partners are welcome!!

Anderson Cooper: What is a Christian? Part Six

This is a spot done by Anderson Cooper on CNN on All Souls in Washington D.C. Great coverage.

IUUSA get together at the Stones

Please plan on attending the IUUSA get together at the home of Joe and Laura Stone on Friday, Nov. 10 in Thornton between 6:30 and 7:00pm.

This is going to be a very casual affair so come as you are and if you would like to bring finger foods or wine or whatever that's great but please don't feel obligated. Feel free to bring spouses, kids, dogs, bunnies or what have you. Everyone is welcome. My 3 and 4 year old would love the company. We have plenty of kid friendly movies and a basement for them to destroy.

This is an opportunity for everyone to get together in the same place and enjoy each other in an off campus, celebrative atmosphere, talk about our liberal religion, of course the impending or possibly just passed midterm elections and how we want to be represented and recognized at Iliff and in the community at large.

Directions to the Stone's house

Thank God for Fair Trade

Come on. This is funny. Chutney is another UU Blog to bookmark. One of my favorites.

Iliff Avenue Conference

To get the conversations started......

My hope is for this blog to foster conversation and debate about the evolving state of Unitarian Universalism at Iliff. The Berry Street Conference started by William Ellery Channing in 1820 is the oldest lecture series on the North American continent. It's purpose was to contribute to the practical strength of liberal ministries. It still takes place after each annual national conference of the UUMA. Think of this blog as a way to for us to contribute to the practical strength of our current and future liberal ministries.

I encourage everyone to add their own content, whether in the form of essays or musings. To start our dialogue, here is an original essay from one of the Berry Street conferences.

What do we mean when we talk about Liberal Religion? As UUs, do we consider ourselves to be Post Christian? Edward Cahill adressed the 1974 UUMA.

When I speak, then, of liberal religion I am speaking of a movement which exhibits the following characteristics, to paraphrase Earl Morse Wilber: the exercise of the free use of reason in an open atmosphere of mutual respect. The difference between traditional orthodox Christianity and the liberal in religion is not in the content of belief but first in the source of belief, second in the method, and third in the attitude with which the belief is held. The orthodox Christian holds his beliefs with a dogmatic inflexibility. The liberal in religion holds his beliefs subject to further testing and the discovery or acquisition of new knowledge.
-Read the full essay here